#acestars

(Book)

time 👏 travel 👏 au

i have. so many ways i imagine this i cannot possibly fit all of them on this one ask sldkfjsdf so i will go off on a Specific way i think about it, which is as followed:

new cycle! cycle [insert number here, prolly early 40's]. the exit from the last planar system into this one is Extremely Rocky and Weird. last cycle had some fucked up things with time anyway- it was hard to tell when days started and ended and it seemed like the world would occasionally Pause and then rewind itself, plants growing smaller, people getting younger. sometimes it went forward very fast as well. either way, it was a mess.

so they get to this new cycle and they're like. huh! this one looks a *lot* like home. like a weird amount like home, to the point where they actually attempt to look for where the ipre base Would Be. when they don't find it (it's a fantasy costco, surprise), they decide to settle in a clearing in a forest near a city and just like,, try to figure it out from there.

things go normally for a while. the air is fine to breath, nothing seems super dangerous to eat or touch near the ship. they branch out a bit to the nearby city, which is (checks notes) Neverwinter. n while Neverwinter seems fine from the outside, when they Enter everyone is just like. wearing a red robe. like almost everyone.

and it's creepy, right?? like imagine u went to a place and everyone was dressed the Exact Same as you were. that's weird and unsettling. even more unsettling is that ppl seem to be some staring at them (more than usual on a new plane). and not like a "who the fuck are you" stare, like a "I Know You" stare.

as they (awkwardly) get deeper into neverwinter, they discover a celebration is going on this week. they ask someone (somewhat you, probably) "what celebration?" the Day of Story and Song, ofc ofc. and they're like. ah. yes. i know what that is [lie]. but, uhhhh, remind me. so i know we're on the same page.

and the person they're talking to is like "oh, it's the day the Hunger was defeated :D!"

and they're like. "huh."

and the person is like "yeah, the seven birds defeated the hunger 20 years ago this week :D!" and gives them like, a list of events happening. several of those events are Speeches. and *one* of the speakers is Merle Highchurch (bc he and lord artemis sterling are sort of buds at the end of balance, just roll with it).

and they're like. "huh."

they prolly do some research and stuff and just try to like,, stay low. but it's very hard when it turns out almost everyone in existence knows your name and face. eventually, we get to the Merle Speech and we all know how that is (awkward and bad but heartfelt bc it's merle).

and there's a Lot of ppl who want to talk to merle after. n i think if it had been anyone else, they probably would have been turned away, but again, it's merle and he's nice and tries to meet everyone. and he sees them and is like "hey nice cosplay :D is that the right word??"

and they have be like. merle. merle, no, it's actually us, something here is fucked up.

!!!! Malevolent is a podcast about this private investigator named Arthur in 1930 ish in Arkham, MA, and it starts with him suddenly becoming blind because there's this thing, this entity in his head who can now see through his eyes in his stead and talk to him.

So Arthur and this Entity wind up in an unlikely and very tenuous relationship where they have to rely on each other to figure out what has happened, while Arthur is trying to kick the Entity out of his head and the Entity in turn is more or less trying to take over Arthur's body entirely as his own instead of being a passenger.

The narration is done through the Entity describing what they see to Arthur, so we get to see through his eyes too, while also hearing all of their conversations (and frequent arguments). It leans into Lovecraftian horror and the concept of madness, but leaves out the racism and all of Lovecraft's other bullshit - just the creepy stuff. And there's a good amount of Arthur getting the shit kicked out of him, so fair warning for all of that. (I'm not sure there are trigger warnings anywhere? I know somebody had started a list but I didn't save it because I wasn't really listening yet, I just knew vaguely about the podcast and there are some uhhhh pretty gory bits.)

It's got some hard hitting lines and questions about what humanity is and what makes a monster and how we get to decide what we want to be, while listening to a man and the voice inside his head bicker like an old married couple. I saw someone say that they get married and divorced more times than Peter and Elias ever did.

The soundscaping is incredible and the guy who writes it also does all of the voices which I didn't realize for the longest time and still baffles me. It's a wild ride. I have laughed and cried and I'm about to start relistening to it already even though I just caught up like 2 days ago lol

I think most basic machines should be able to do this! I’m not sure about handheld sewing machines because I don’t have any experience with them, but my tabletop sewing machine isn’t anything fancy. It definitely doesn’t need specialized equipment. It can also be done by hand if you have the time and energy.

Forever tip for new sewists: GET TWO SEAM RIPPERS. Seam rippers give you the power to undo mistakes and remake the universe. Seam rippers make you a god. Mistakes are inevitable, so come prepared. Therefore, losing your seam ripper is a cause of great woe and lamentation, and Murphy’s law says that you will inevitably lose your seam ripper. (You’re probably sitting on it, or it’s under your chair.) Get two.

If you’re new to sewing, I think the hardest skill to learn will be sewing the straight lines. If you veer off course, you might make your boning channel  It can take a bit of work before you’re used to guiding and moving the fabric around. To work on those skills, grab a piece of paper or fabric with lines drawn on, and practice your sewing:

This video teaches pivoting, which is a skill you’ll be using a lot for this project. For other projects sewing curves would be useful to practice, but they’re not big in this one.